Month: September 2018

But I also hope you noticed that the biblical teaching on creation is 100% incompatible with the idea that life on planet earth emerged through a slow, gradual process of evolution.

Some people want to soften this point, and try to make the Bible seem less out of step with “science” by arguing that Genesis 1 & 2 are not to be interpreted literally. That’s a discussion worth having, but as I see it, there are two main reasons why the Bible’s teaching on creation is incompatible with the theory of evolution regardless of how we understand Genesis 1 & 2:

1) Adam and Eve. Scripture repeatedly portrays Adam and Eve as real, historical people who were the real ancestors of all of humanity (Acts 17:26). We needed to be saved by a literal Jesus because we are all fallen in a literal Adam (Rom 5:12-21, 1 Cor 15:21-22).

2) Death before sin. Scripture is likewise clear that the sin of Adam and Eve brought death into the world (Rom 5:12). The “futility” we witness in the world around is is a result of God’s curse on Adam and Eve’s sin (Rom 8:18-21). Darwinian evolution, on the other hand, assumes that death itself is the creative force that brought humans into existence in the first place.

That’s how evolution works: everyone is in a fight for survival, and those who develop positive mutations do a better job at survival, and so pass those positive traits on to their children. The entire process is driven by the reality of death.

Put shortly, Darwin teaches that man came into the world because of death, the Bible teaches that death came into the world because of man, and those two views are impossible to reconcile.

Well, then, but what about “the science”? My response is, what about it? We believe that Jesus died and then walked out of his own grave on the third day. If you want a faith that will pass the approval of the scientific establishment, Christianity is simply not going to work for you.

And yet, the issues are more complex—and perhaps more reassuring—than this simple answer can provide. For example, work in recent years by the Intelligent Design community (see the Discovery Institute) amply demonstrates that the science is far from settled. “Scientific consensus” is a public relations term that means less and less the further you probe.

The bigger issue, however, is that science itself is not a neutral exercise, and an honest investigation into the philosophy of science will show this. Scientific inquiry is based upon philosophical presuppositions about the universe which only stem from, and make sense within, a biblical worldview. This 6-minute audio clip from Greg Bahnsen explains this point well.

This is the reason that most of the founding fathers of modern science were Christians, at least in a broad sense, and operated from the assumption that the Scriptures are true. As this video describes, their assumptions about the discoverability of the universe were grounded in beliefs about the nature of God as revealed in Scripture.

Therefore, the scientific establishment as we see it today is something of a hijack operation. Christians got this plane off the ground, and now it’s been taken over by a group of people who are using the PA system to loudly deny the existence of flight. It’s that ridiculous, when you look at it properly.

The point of all of this? We should not be ashamed to praise our Creator, in a full-throated-way, the way Psalm 104 tells us to. There’s no need to keep looking back over our shoulders to see if all the people in lab coats are nodding in approval or not.

Emmanuel Baptist Church is a family, a family that’s active every day all over the town of Nipawin- meeting together, praying for each other, studying the Bible together, encouraging each other. You can find out information about some of our specific gatherings and programs here:

Welcome to Emmanuel Baptist Church! We’re located in Nipawin, SK, at Tyndall Ave & 3rd St N. Our Sunday morning service starts at 10:30 am, but you can come any time after 9:30 for a warm cup of coffee and some good conversation.

“Emmanuel” means “God with us,” and we really believe that this is true. Because God sent his son Jesus to die for our sins, we can know Him as our Father and be a part of His family. Nothing would bring us more joy than to help you know God in this way.

We are a part of a bigger family of churches known as the Baptist General Conference of Canada.

THE WORD OF GODWe believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without doctrinal, historical, or factual error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

THE TRINITYWe believe there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three persons; that these are equal in every divine perfection, and that they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence and redemption.

GOD THE FATHERWe believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of each person; that He hears and answers prayers, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus.

JESUS CHRISTWe believe in Jesus Christ, existing eternally as God’s Son. In His incarnation He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, led a sinless life, performed miracles and taught with authority. We believe in His substitutionary atoning death for the sins of all people, His bodily resurrection, His ascension into heaven, His perpetual intercession for His people and His personal, visible return to earth.

THE HOLY SPIRITWe believe in the Holy Spirit, who was sent by the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify and empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ and that He is an abiding helper, teacher and guide. We believe that God has given to believers spiritual gifts according to I Corinthians 12, 13, 14, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4.

ANGELSWe believe that angels are a distinct order of created spiritual beings; that they can appear in human form; that good angels minister to human beings and serve God as special messengers; that Satan, a fallen angel, and his evil angels whom he leads, exercise great but limited evil power in the world, and will suffer final defeat at the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.

REGENERATIONWe believe that all people are sinners by nature and by choice, and are therefore under condemnation. We believe that those who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and become new creations in Christ Jesus, but that the old nature is not eradicated.

THE CHURCHWe believe in the universal church, the living spiritual body of which Christ is the Head and all regenerated persons are members. We believe in the local church, consisting of a community of believers, baptized on a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and associated for worship, ministry and fellowship. We believe that the mission of the church is to bring the good news of Jesus Christ into our lost world.

CHRISTIAN CONDUCTWe believe that Christians should live for the glory of God and the well-being of others; that their conduct should be blameless before the world; that they should be faithful stewards of their possessions; and that they should seek to realize for themselves and others the full stature of maturity in Christ.

THE ORDINANCESWe believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has committed two ordinances to the local church, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We practice Christian Baptism as the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the triune God. We believe that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ in order to remember His death. We believe that these two ordinances should be observed and celebrated until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOMWe believe that every person is directly responsible to God. Believers should be free to covenant together in autonomous congregations without undue interference from any ecclesiastical or government authority. While respecting the authority of government we affirm the responsibility of the church to speak into the public forum. In matters of disagreement between Scripture and government, we believe we must obey God.

THE LAST THINGSWe believe in the personal visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His Kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, the eternal felicity of the righteous, and the endless suffering of the wicked.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

(Hebrews 10:24-25)

Church is so much more than a Sunday morning gathering. Church is who we are. That’s why we love small groups at EBC, which allow us to connect throughout the week and be the church together.

Most of our small groups will meet in the evening, once per week, for about two hours. There’ll be time to talk, discuss how we can apply that week’s sermon to our lives, and pray for each other.

If you’re a part of the EBC family, we’d love for you to join a small group. Just head over to our “Contact” page and fill out the communication form—and make sure to check off “I’d like to join a small group.” You’ll then have the option to let us know your availability and other info which will help us place you in just the right small group.

In this week’s message we discussed election, God’s choice of whom He would save, made before the foundation of the world. We saw this in passages like Ephesians 1:4-5: “…he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…”

Many people hear a passage like this and think, “that can’t be right. God doesn’t choose some people and not others. God wants everybody to be saved, and it’s up to us to choose God. So if God is writing names down in His book, choosing people from the foundations of the world, that must be because He looked forward in time and saw those who would choose Him. And so God wrote down the names of everyone who would choose Him.”

But that’s actually not what the Bible tells us. It tells us repeatedly that we choose God because He chose us, not the other way around.

One of the clearest places we see this is in the book of Acts, in chapter 13. The apostle Paul is preaching in the city of Antioch, and had shared the gospel with a group of people. And Acts 13:48 says, “And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”

Who are the ones who believe? Those who were appointed to eternal life. They weren’t appointed to eternal life because they believed; they believed because God appointed them to eternal life.

That’s what the Bible teaches. But we should acknowledge that even in the face of Scripture like this, many people are still uncomfortable with these things. Many people are uncomfortable with words like “election” and “predestination,” even though both of these words are used right in the Bible! Many people are freaked out when they are taught that God is this sovereign.

I used to be one of those people. I used to be uncomfortable with the idea of a God so big and so sovereign that it was His choice, not my choice, that determined the way things were going to be. And I used to go on the internet and argue with people about this.

A part of the reason some of us struggle with this, and I think I struggled with this, is that we’re very used to the idea of democracy. When we think about the word “election,” we think about something we do to choose a leader. We give our leaders power. If we don’t like them, we get a chance to choose a new one.

In our modern way of thinking, we are each self-determining. We get to choose what we do and when. There is nobody bigger than us who has power over our lives to decide our destinies. We are the captains of our own fate, the masters of our own soul.

But in times past, people were far more used to the idea of a king. An absolute monarch, with absolute sovereignty. You didn’t elect Him. He had imperial power, and you bowed before His will.

God is a king like that. He has absolute, unconditional sovereignty.

In Daniel chapter 4, King Nebuchadnezzar–a man quite used to having imperial power–said this about the God of Heaven:

“His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?'” (Daniel 4:35).

He does according to His will—in other words, whatever He wants—among the inhabitants of the earth, and nobody can second-guess Him.

This is the same thing the Apostle Paul said in Romans 9 when He was defending the absolute sovereignty of God. Listen to this passage:

“So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?” (Romans 9:18–21).

Now please hear me: there are legitimate questions about how this teaching meshes with everything the Bible says about the offer of salvation and God’s genuine desire for all to be saved. We see some of that tension resolved in passages like the one I just read from Acts, where the Apostle Paul preaches the gospel freely to all, and trusts that the ones God had chosen will respond. I’ve been further helped with some of these legitimate questions by John Piper’s excellent essay “Are There Two Wills in God?”, which I would commend to you.

But I think it’s important to start with the Bible’s basic teaching that God is God, and we are not, and we must be okay with that. We have to come to peace with God being the king who has absolute sovereign sway over us.

Because the place we should be at is one of praising and thankingGod for His sovereignty. We should realize that if He had not chosen and called us, we would not have come. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God made us alive together with Christ, like Ephesians 2:4 says. We’ve been resurrected, called forth from the grave just like Lazarus.

And that’s why Paul explodes with worship when He writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:3–4).

God choosing us is a breathtaking blessing that we should praise God for. The doctrine of election should be fuel for more than our questions or our arguments－it should ignite our worship.